The Legend of the Dream Catcher
Dream catchers are a Native American Indian tradition. They are made as a charm to protect sleeping children from nightmares. Today, dream catchers are made in practically every Native American tribe in the United States and Canada, but their origins can be traced back to the Chippewa tribe. The Chippewa would tie sinew strands around a bent wood frame in a pattern similar to how they tied the webbing in their snowshoes. The result was a spider web effect. Indeed, it is this from this similarity that the legend of the Dream catcher arises. Native American Folk Lore
"A spider was quietly spinning his web in his own space. It was beside the sleeping space of Nokomis, the grandmother.Each day, Nokomis watched the spider at work, quietly spinning away. One day as she was watching him, her grandson came in. "Nokomis-iya!" he shouted, glancing at the spider. He stomped over to the spider, picked up a shoe and went to hit it.
"No-keegwa," the old lady whispered, "don't hurt him.""Nokomis, why do you protect the spider?" asked the little boy. The old lady smiled, but did not answer.
When the boy left, the spider went to the old woman and thanked her for saving his life. He said to her, "For many days you have watched me spin and weave my web. You have admired my work. In return for saving my life, I will give you a gift."
He smiled his special spider smile and moved away, spinning as he went. Soon the moon glistened on a magical silvery web moving gently in the window. "See how I spin?" he said. "See and learn, for each web will snare bad dreams. Only good dreams will go through the small hole. This is my gift to you. Use it so that only good dreams will be remembered. The bad dreams will become hopelessly entangled in the web."
No one knows exactly when the Navajo began making dream catchers, we just know that eventually they adopted the tradition. Today, authentic Navajo dream catchers are some of the most beautiful and finely crafted available.
Take a few minutes pleasure and view some examples of Native American dream catchers.
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